I was watching a video from a prominent YouTube personality on changes he’d like to see to the rules in the NHL Hockey League. I could probably talk at length about some of the ideas I have, but that’s not what this is about. One “bonus” segment he talked about was how he’d love to see some changes in the broadcast of NHL games, specifically that he was frustrated with a glowing overlaid circle on certain players to highlight them on the ice. He found that annoying, and I could only agree – but it got me thinking, what could the future of hockey broadcasting look like?

I doubt that few reading this will have much of a clue what I’m about to talk about, and fewer more may care, but it’s a lot of fun for me. It’s a story about learning, tinkering, and forever evolving. It really all started about 25 years ago when I built a couple web pages back in the early days of the Internet, and has culminated in me more or less having a small farm of servers running in my 676sqft condo. Along the way I’ve learned a LOT of things, and the beauty (or, brutality) of it all is that I have done it all on my own. Self taught. I’ve fallen more than a few times, but with failure comes an opportunity to learn.

If you care even a little bit about your digital life, you should probably read this and think about it. What do you have on your computer, your phone, or in “the cloud”? What’s on social media? What’s on some CD you burned 20 years ago? Is it pictures of your wedding, or your child’s first steps? Maybe it’s a copy of your thesis that’s taken you 2 years to write. Or, maybe it’s a picture of your wang, at a moment when the sun was JUST right, and somehow this is the most triumphant and proud you’ve felt in the past decade. Three cheers for toxic masculinity.

What would happen if all of that was permanently deleted, right this moment? No warning, nothing. Gone. Would you be sad? Would it change your life? Would it make life harder? Would your business be in jeopardy? Are your passwords backed up? What about your browser bookmarks that you’ve spent 10 years curating? Poof. I’m going to tell you how to prevent this.

Look, I’m just going to put this out as a blanket statement – you should never give ANY of your personal information out unless it’s absolutely necessary. This goes triple to big corporations. Think about it – if a stranger walked up to you on the street and asked for your home address, place of work, and phone number – would you hand that over without thinking? Not a chance. So, why is it you so freely do so with proven evil corporate giants?

Every “points card”, “loyalty card”, and so-forth is to track you. When the cashier asks for your email address for your receipt, or they want your postal code, tell them you decline. If they insist they need it (they don’t), ask them for their own personal phone number and home address. But giving in is only hurting you and stripping you of more of your privacy – possibly one of the only things you have left that’s actually yours. Think I’m paranoid, or question why it matters? Read on.

Fitting, seeing as he’s a real piece of shit. You may know him from such blockbuster films as “Above the law” or “Under Siege”. He’s even tried his hand at action/comedies like “The Glimmer Man”, but the real comedy is in how horribly scripted all this stuff is. He’s quite literally type-cast himself, where he more or less plays the same character in every movie; an ex-CIA/special-forces/Black-Ops agent with a secretive past, where he goes on to beat the living piss out of every bad-guy he comes across with his insane martial arts skills, then at the end of the movie makes out with the girl, and usually has some heartfelt message to share with the audience.

As a kid I remember the rumours always being “he can actually do all this stuff in real life!” and of course that makes him instantly cool. The thing is, Seagal is little more than a fraud. Which, in and of itself would be fine – he’d be just like so many other Hollywood celebrities. However the thing is he truly thinks he’s somehow this great authority on serious real life matters, and it’s that insane ego that’s put him in a whole new rank of horrible person. That, and a whole lot of sexual assault, among other things.